Have you ever been told you that you weren’t creative?

Maybe it was an art teacher you had in 6th grade who shook her head in pity when she reviewed your work, or a classmate who made fun, or possibly even an old boss who told you, “stick to your day job.” Whatever it was, being told we aren’t creative can scar us for life. It instills the kind of fear that makes us hesitant to do anything outside the box or raise our hand when we have an idea (even a great one!).

A lot of us have stories like that, which is why companies and individuals often assume that creativity and innovation are the domain of those “creative types.” But in their book Creative Confidence, authors David Kelley, IDEO founder and Stanford d.School creator, and his brother Tom Kelley, IDEO partner and author of The Art of Innovation, show that each and every one of us is creative.

Myth: Being creative is a fixed trait you are born with, like having brown or blue eyes. It is a rare gift to be enjoyed by the lucky few.

Fact: We are all creative. Creative Confidence is like a muscle—it can be strengthened and nurtured through effort and experience. Creativity comes into play whenever you have the opportunity to generate new ideas, solutions or approaches, and it is one of our most precious resources.

In the world of public relations, we must be creative every day. How do we create news for a client when they have no news? How do we transform something mundane into something interesting? How can we get our clients into the conversations they want to be in and into the headlines of the publications their buyers read?

Here at Zer0 to 5ive, we may not all be painters, musicians, or culinary mavens (although some of us are pretty darned good in the kitchen), but experienced public relations professionals know that what we do is not an exact science—PR is an art form. What works in one situation may not work in another, and what worked last year (frustratingly) may not work this year. It takes practice, trial and error, which is why people outside our field often struggle to understand what we do. Many chalk it up to magic, spin, or just being naturally persuasive. Although a little salesmanship may come into play, being creative in PR is a skill that we all have developed through hard work, many rejections and lots and lots of practice.

The next time you need to “find” your creative confidence, look to these tips offered by Tom and David Kelley in their book:

1. Choose creativity: The first step is to decide you want to be creative.
2. Think like a traveler: Like a visitor to a foreign land, try turning fresh eyes on your surroundings, no matter how mundane or familiar. Expose yourself to new ideas, experiences and approaches.
3. Engage relaxed attention: Flashes of insight often come when your mind is relaxed and not focused on completing a specific task, allowing the mind to make new connections between seemingly unrelated ideas.
4. Empathize with your end user: You come up with more innovative ideas when you better understand the needs and context of the people you are creating solutions for.
5. Do observations in the field: If you observe others the same way an anthropologist would, you might discover new opportunities hidden in plain sight.
6. Ask questions, starting with why: A series of “why” questions can brush past surface details and get to the heart of the matter. For example, if you ask someone why they are still using a fading technology (think flip phones), the answers might have more to do with psychology than practicality.
7. Reframe challenges: Sometimes, the first step toward a great solution is to reframe the question. Starting from a different point of view can help you get to the essence of the problem.
8. Build a creative support network: Creativity can flow more easily and be more fun when you have others to collaborate with and bounce ideas off of.

A little creative confidence can go a long way. You just need to remember that everyone has the innate potential to be creative. If you keep flexing the muscles of your imagination, you can be as creative as Picasso, no matter what your 6th grade teacher said!

What does it mean to be creative? Do you always need to think outside the box, or can you be creative within a set of rules you need to abide by? Are you born creative, or is it a learned skill?

In PR, you have to be creative much of the time, which can be scary to some. Ed Catmull explains in his book, Creativity, Inc., that it’s okay to be scared if you learn to overcome it. Being creative and innovative, as he describes it, is an earned right. You need to fail early, fail fast, and fail fearlessly. Every early failure is a door that closes on future wasted time, allowing you to focus on the opportunities that have real potential.



Catmull, who was one of the co-founders of Pixar Animation Studios, clearly knows how to overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of successful innovation. These “dark forces,” as he calls them, flourish in fear—fear of failure, fear of criticism, fear of change, fear of others. Fear kills innovation. Being able to stand up to fear is what makes a company and an individual more creative and more innovative.



With Catmull’s concept of “fearless innovation” in mind, here are five different ways to apply his guiding principles to public relations:

1. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone: You can’t be truly innovative if you keep doing the same thing over and over again. Being creative requires you to try new things, even if you fail. Failure will make your future ideas and approaches better. When you’re writing a pitch, think outside the box. This will lead to more creative pitches, which in turn can lead to better outcomes.




2. Great Minds: Surround yourself with a great team, a team that might have different viewpoints than your own. If you can respect these differences in opinions, your collective creativity will be stronger for it. In PR, you shouldn’t go at it alone, because you’ll be at risk of becoming dry. Being on a team that challenges you to be better, or come up with the best pitch for a certain topic or press release, will help you grow as a person and as a PR professional.




3. Be Honest: You should encourage others around you to be honest about your work. If you’re not completely candid about your team’s work, then your final product won’t be the best it can be. In PR, you and your team should provide constructive criticism, so that the ultimate pitch or great byline topic can go out the door




4. Team Leads: If you lead a team, you should listen to others while keeping control. You should also fail with your team, grow as a group, and succeed as one powerful unit. This is especially true in public relations for account leads. Retaining control while allowing your team to grow as PR professionals is essential to your team’s success. When not pitching “mission critical” news, let your team experiment and see where it takes you.




5. Opportunity: PR can be random – a winning pitch that doesn’t deliver, or a weird, but interesting pitch that captures the imagination in a top-tier editor. You should embrace this unreliability, as some of the best innovations happen because of a curveball. If you receive a negative comment from a customer on an article, don’t see it as a PR nightmare. View it as an opportunity! Your reply has the opportunity to engage, shed light on the topic, get people to think in news ways, or just let readers know that you are listening to their feedback.

There is no set definition on how to be creative, and every profession presents different opportunities to show your creativity. In PR, it might mean a great pitch or an awesome byline. In teaching, it might mean finding creative ways to engage your students. However, one thing is true for all forms of creativity: Don’t be afraid to fail, try out new ideas or ask for feedback – success is just around the corner!


By Jim Dougherty

Video as a Rising Social Medium

According to Cisco, video will account for 69% of all consumer traffic by 2017. Both current statistics and trend predictions like this one indicate video’s rapid rise as a social medium. It’s clear that marketers need to include it in their content strategy in order to provide maximum exposure for their businesses.

What Does Video Bring to a Content Marketing Strategy?

• Maximized engagement
• Cross-device targeting
• Brand authenticity and communication on a human level
• Cross-promotion with digital marketing initiatives

Even Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses Can Leverage Video Marketing

One of the factors fueling video’s growing popularity is the decrease in production costs. With the advent of video cameras on mobile phones and desktops, wearable cameras like GoPros, and single-camera, documentary-style footage, great videos can be made at a fraction of budgets deemed necessary just 5 years ago.

With a lowered barrier to entry, video isn’t just for enterprise businesses with enterprise budgets. In fact, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg stated that over 1.5 million small businesses posted video on Facebook in the month of September alone in 2015.

When the opportunity for relevant video content presents itself, companies of all sizes should seize it. Here’s an example of how Zer0 to 5ive recently helped a client take advantage of such an opportunity to create a compelling video series.

Carnegie Mellon University: The Spotlight Series

Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science (CMU SCS) wished to showcase their innovative programs and visionary research to attract the world’s top undergraduates, graduates and faculty. CMU SCS faculty is teaching the next generation of computer scientists, working with industry leaders, developing new forms of AI, and building care-giving robots to best learn how to help people in need. In highlighting these impressive endeavors, the Spotlight Series was born.

Tips on How to Promote and Cross-Promote Video Content

After post-production, how can a marketer best promote and cross-promote video content online? Author Andrew Macarthy provides the following tips in his bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips.

Tips for Facebook

• Because videos auto-play on silent, hook viewers with a striking visual within the first 3 seconds
• Upload SRT caption files with your video to broadcast your message even while muted
• Keep your video to approximately 30 seconds for optimum viewer engagement
• Upload video to Facebook natively, as opposed to sharing it from YouTube, in order to increase reach
• Via the Video tab, organize your videos into playlists, tag people, and add descriptive labels

Tips for YouTube

• Keep your video to approximately 3 minutes for optimum viewer engagement
• Include keywords at the front of your video title and branding at the end
• Tag your video with keywords and keyword phrases in quotations
• Take advantage of YouTube’s interactive cards, the evolution of annotations
• If you have a series of videos, add all of them to a dedicated playlist so they run continuously and indicate the series name in the title of each video

Tips for Cross-Promotion

• Embed video in blog posts
• Embed a YouTube Subscribe channel widget on your website, which is also a way to advertise your video content and YouTube activity
• Tweet about your video with relevant hashtags, making sure to include “Video:” before the title
• Comment on other videos your audience is watching to increase your brand awareness

Now may be a great time for you to start considering video if you haven’t already. The benefits will continue to grow as demand rapidly increases, so why not take the leap now? You can start small and build up to a more robust content plan as your skills improve and as you get feedback from your prospects and customers.

We’re all guilty of jumping on the bandwagon once or twice in our lives (maybe more?), whether it was pairing socks with your Birkenstocks, bleaching your hair so you could be more like Eminem, or jumping into Snapchat without a clue. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s what it is to be human. In business though, joining the latest trend without considering all of the elements and possible effects can be costly or, even worse, damage your brand.


In the book 500 Social Media Marketing Tips, author Andrew Macarthy discusses the one big mistake that many businesses make with social media: joining social media sites just because everyone else is doing so. When businesses join these sites without understanding what they are doing or why, it can lead to unrealistic goal-setting, poor results, wasted time and squandered resources.


To avoid such consequences, here are five key considerations your business should make before using social media:

1. Decide which social networks suit your brand: The social media sites that work best for your business will be those where your target audience already hangs out. For example, if you are a B2B company, your target audience will most likely be present on LinkedIn and Twitter, as opposed to platforms like Instagram or Pinterest.




2. Define and evaluate your goals: Before posting content on your social media platforms, identify the goals you would like to reach using the SMART technique. With this method, you will determine the Specific goals you want to reach, as well as how your goals are Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time specific.




3. Shape your content strategy: Before you begin your social media marketing, take the time to perform an audit, identifying your audience along with what problems you can help solve, what questions you can answer, what type of content they prefer (i.e. text, photo, graphics, video) and when they are most likely to be around to see it. You should also use this time to determine what your competition is doing on social media.




4. Plan content in advance: Developing a social media content calendar allows you to plan your social media for weeks and even months in advance. For example, you can plan to promote blog posts on Monday, ask your audience questions on Tuesdays, share relevant infographics on Wednesdays, etc. Planning ahead will also allow you to incorporate relevant holidays, awareness days, and important company events and milestones. However, be sure to leave room for spontaneous posts too.




5. Understand that social media requires a lot of time: In order for social media marketing to be successful, it will require a significant investment of time over the long haul. Typically, at least 12-15 hours per week should be spent planning, creating, and scheduling content, as well as measuring results and engaging customers. Hence the importance of selecting your platforms wisely and not spreading yourself too thin!

These five considerations will help you begin to understand what kind of approach to social media works for your business. Whether you need to boost brand recognition, connect with new customers or increase traffic to your website, social media can be a cost-effective way to achieve your goals. Although it takes a lot of time and effort, social media can be well worth it when it’s done right.


By Maggie Markert

I hate to be the bearer of bad, awful news, but there isn’t a patented formula for successful content marketing. No matter how much we all wish that every post we publish would set the web on fire, rarely does that ever happen. More often than not, it feels like a cruel game of attrition trying to find the right topic, angle and frequency.

When Nothing Goes Right, Go Left

Let’s take a step back and simplify what content marketing is. Content Marketing Institute founder Joe Pulizzi explains in his thought-provoking book, Epic Content Marketing, that there are four primary ways to communicate with your audience:

• Inform
• Entertain
• Self-promote
• Advertise

While the latter two options are perfectly viable for any business, it’s the first two that Pulizzi deems absolutely critical to audience engagement. And what differentiates content marketing (1 and 2) from traditional marketing (3 and 4) is how valuable the audience perceives the content to be. After all, 70% of people would rather learn about a company through articles rather than ads, according to Demand Metric. Moreover, the combination of information and entertainment is where content marketing really has the potential to shine, and nothing proves that more than one of the most beloved children’s television shows of all time.



Hitting the public airwaves in November 1969, Sesame Street captured the minds and imaginations of kids everywhere with its unique blend of puppets, vocabulary, math and science. More than four decades later and the series is still going strong, having enriched the lives of over 77 million Americans in the process. So what’s the key to this show’s success?



Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

Children want to learn. They want to grow. They want to explore. But until Sesame Street came along, no one was willing to gamble on a program that tried to teach kids through a TV screen.



Research at the time showed that young children didn’t have the attention span to follow an hour-long lesson, so the show’s creators decided to try something different. They used educational goals to shape the content and then chopped up the format to create a faster, more engaging pace tailored to their audience. Standalone, curriculum-based segments were interspersed with fun sketches and animations, keeping kids tuned in not only from beginning to end, but also episode after episode.



Of course, that’s not to say the show was flawless right off the bat. Continuous research was needed to hone in on the ideal characters, most effective segments and best overall structure. The series underwent countless adjustments until it reached its stride. For example, do you remember Professor Hastings? Exactly! He got the axe during the first season because he was found to be too dull in comparison to his energetic cohorts, and the show was better for it.



And when new studies came to light decades after the debut, showing that children were more capable of following stories than originally believed, the Street began to incorporate evolving narratives to captivate a different generation. It never stopped evolving.



From Muppets to Marketing

You may be thinking, what do a bunch of fuzzy puppets have to do with my business’s content marketing plan? Well, let’s look at what Sesame Street is really doing here. Yes, they’re teaching children. Yes, they’re pleasing parents. But they’re also selling tons of merchandise. If you look at it through this lens, the show is actually the ultimate form of content marketing.



In Epic Content Marketing, Joe Pulizzi defines the practice as “the marketing and business process for creating and distributing content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience—with the objective of driving profitable customer action.” Tickle Me Elmo would gleefully agree!



Understandably, very few businesses are in position to launch a wildly popular television series, but Sesame Street is sunny day inspiration at its best. The show’s constant experimentation to find the perfect mixture of education and entertainment is something all content marketers should strive to emulate. Only by understanding what your audience needs and delivering it in a compelling way can you begin to cultivate a loyal group of consumers.



Now, I can’t tell you how to get to Sesame Street, but I can help you follow their lead. Here are some things to think about as you develop your content marketing plan:

• Figure out what your audience wants to know. Kids love stories and naturally want to learn how to read, so Sesame Street enlisted a lovable cast of characters to teach those lessons. It’s up to you to figure out the curriculum that clicks with your audience.




• Choose the right media. Obviously, children are more likely to watch a colorful show than page through a lengthy case study, but every audience has its preferred content format. You need to find out where your prospects turn to first when they want to acquire new knowledge.




• Balance the information with the entertainment. Should your content marketing be a profound Big Bird production or an all-out Cookie Monster extravaganza? Maybe the tone needs to be dialed in somewhere between the two. Only your audience can decide.




• Research. Readjust. Repeat. Track your KPIs constantly to see what’s working and what isn’t. Oscar isn’t as grouchy as he used to be. Snuffleupagus is no longer a hallucination. Your content will need to change over time to keep up with your audience’s shifting preferences, so don’t be afraid to deviate from your original plan.

Keep these guidelines in mind every time you create new content and you’ll be well on your way to where the air is sweet.



This blog post was brought to you by the numbers 0, 2 and 5.



By Justin Schorah / justin@0to5.com

Whether you are redesigning your company’s website, developing event collateral, or implementing a PR program, an outside agency can be your most valuable resource. However, it’s critical that you, as the client, guide them on the path to success and stay involved so that your agency gets the direction they need to really shine, and you get the results you want. Here are some tips to maximize your agency relationship.



Define Success


Work with your agency and all major internal stakeholders to outline the deliverables and qualities of those deliverables. Get specific about what measurable objectives you can expect from your agency. Share examples of other brands, websites or articles with your agency for review so they better understand what success looks like to you. An outline of your goals will serve as the guiding framework for the project, and will be a helpful resource as the project evolves.



Collaborate & Communicate


Perhaps the reason you hired an agency in the first place is because you are just too busy with other priorities. In that case, delegate oversight and day-to-day communication to an internal partner that you trust! Your agency will need information and feedback that only an internal resource and industry expert can provide. From proposal to kickoff to execution – stakeholder input is key to making sure that the project is successful and drives results. Like with any other business partnership, collaboration and consistent communication from both agency and client is key.



Be Direct and Specific


Be as specific as possible when giving feedback throughout the project lifecycle, but particularly at the beginning of a project. Not sure what you need or what you are looking for exactly? That’s completely okay! Your agency should have experience and be able to make recommendations. During the process, be specific about what you like or don’t like. Communication and iteration are critical to achieving the very best results, so don’t hesitate to ask for another option or to see something presented in a different way.



Trust the Experts


Set a tone of trust. As much as your agency team needs and wants your input, remember that they are the experts in their field and fully understand best practices and strategies to achieve the best results for you. Trust your agency to do what they do best – to produce creative, compelling and effective work. If you’ve been engaged from the beginning, then the collaboration should be apparent. In the case where you think the results are off base or the team has missed the mark in some way, there’s no harm in a targeted course correct. You and your agency are a team!



Whatever your role, your agency relationship can be a secret weapon. Armed with the right information, agencies can be a strategic partner that brings significant value to the relationship.



 

By Lizzie Beggs

@lizziebeggs

Your client is about to make a big announcement or wants to promote the company’s latest campaign. You know what that means…time to plan another media tour. The question is, how do you make the most of the time and effort that goes into setting up a tour?

Below are some tips you can use to help your client look like a rock star.

1. Time it Right – Give yourself four to six weeks to pitch the media. You need time to draft your pitch, research the appropriate media contacts, conduct the outreach and follow up. It’s rare that you’ll get responses on the first round of pitching. Getting answers from the media can take some persistence.The time of year is also important to consider. You can’t book your client on a national talk show in the summer since they are on re-runs. Are you trying to book a guest during sweeps? Will you be competing with the holidays? An election? Make sure you are aware of the date(s) that you’re selecting so you can be sure to get the most open schedule possible.
2. Hone in on Your Targets – If you are planning a media tour in NYC, the types of media available to pitch can seem limitless. Try to hone in on what your dream day of interviews for your client would look like, and go from there. Who is the audience you are trying to reach? Are they more accessible by radio, TV, Internet or traditional print media? You’ll probably find it will be a mixture. Quality is more important than quantity when building your media list. Make sure you’re approaching the right contact.
3. Plan – I always add a schedule tab to my media list where I keep track of confirmed and tentative interview dates and times. This allows me to see at a glance what the day(s) are looking like in real time. Don’t schedule interviews too close together. This prevents stress if the first interview of the day runs late, eating into and delaying the rest of they day’s interviews. This is especially important when working with broadcast for live TV or radio. Ask your media contact how long they estimate the interview taking, if you need to arrive early and for any special instructions when you arrive.
4. Put Pen to Paper – Before every media tour, draft a briefing book, which should include every possible detail. Items for the briefing book include: the schedule at-a-glance, a one-pager for each interview with media outlet info, contact info (including cell phone), sample interview questions, social media handles and key messages. Don’t forget to include details of accommodations and transportation as well. Share the book with your client as soon as possible so he/she can prepare as well.
5. Be Flexible – You have your briefing book in hand and your schedule confirmed. You’re all set, right? Not exactly. Be prepared for change as the media tour will never follow the schedule exactly as you’ve laid it out. Without fail, your client will miss their train, an interview will run over or any number of things will happen. Don’t panic. Remember, you’re prepared with all your contacts’ cell phone numbers. A quick call can get you back on track.
6. Show Off – You did the work, now show it off! A great wrap-up report is something you can prepare in advance and have ready to add in last-minute details. Plan to send within a day after the tour is complete. Make sure to include the number of interviews secured, interviewer and outlet, impressions and any social media activity. Also include any clips that have been published and the anticipated dates for those that are pending.

Conducting a media tour is no easy task. You’ll undoubtedly spend more time planning and logistics than you ever thought possible. If you plan well enough though, it will all be worth it when you get great results for your client!

One of the most exciting things about working in marketing is the ever-evolving nature of customer behavior. The challenge that results is in keeping up with trends that our marketing forefathers could never have even imagined! Here are three drivers not to be ignored in 2016:

 



Content Driven Search Traffic


For some people, SEO has become more about outsmarting search engines than providing good quality content for people. Google has made great strides in improving its algorithms to ensure a greater quality of search results. As it moves more and more in the direction of machine learning and artificial intelligence there is simply going to be no substitute for good content. So stop worrying so much about SEO and start building content so rich and valuable that search engines will want to drive traffic there!

 



Mobile Accessibility


With more people than ever before using mobile devices and the proliferation of smartwatches into popular culture, more and more people are accessing information in ways they hadn’t been before. As a result, mobile marketing has reached new heights of importance. If you want to reach your customer where they “live” – mobile comes first. Mobile friendly websites, mobile friendly HTML emails, and – where it makes sense – mobile applications. In 2016, make mobile priority #1 – not an afterthought.

 



Immersive Experiences


The advances made recently in inexpensive virtual reality, such as Google Cardboard and the much-anticipated Oculus Rift, have given marketers a new opportunity to engage prospects. Storytelling is an essential element to connecting emotionally, and immersive experiences provide environments designed specifically to create a memorable experience and emotional connection. Be among the early adopters to use this technology for marketing campaigns and simultaneously increase your cool factor while showcasing your product in a brand new way.

 



At the end of the day, the heart of every marketing strategy is connecting with people along their unique customer journeys.   If you keep the customer at the center of your strategy, your chances of success grow exponentially!

No matter what field you are in, emails are undoubtedly employed more than face-to-face communication. While email is typically a casual way of communicating, misspellings and grammatical errors can (and will) give your audience the impression that you are rushing, unorganized or not thorough.

While writing an email may not seem important compared to a case study or press release, they still deserve attention to detail. In public relations, in particular, a poorly written email pitch could result in a reporter not responding to you or refusing to cover your client’s news. It can also result in a reporter including a typo or the wrong information in an article.

To avoid any undesired consequences for you and your clients, here are a few tips for drafting the best email:

1. Take Your Time: It never hurts to take an extra few minutes when writing an email. When you don’t give an email the time it deserves, it can come across as rushed or confusing to the person receiving it.
2. Don’t Hit Send Immediately: We’ve all sent an email (or two) that we wish we could un-send. Maybe you realized you addressed it to the wrong person or forgot to include the press release you were pitching. Avoiding such blunders is easy. When you finish typing, take a breath and read through your email in total. Then, press send!
3. Ask a Colleague to Review: When you’re sending an important email – perhaps a pitch to The New York Times or the TODAY Show – it doesn’t hurt to have a colleague review for any errors you may have missed or to ensure that your pitch is compelling, well written and error-free.

Remember, an email is not just an email. It is often the first impression you give a reporter, or an ongoing impression that you give a client. Therefore, give your emails the time, consideration and professionalism they deserve.

The web is an ever-evolving platform. For a business to appear credible as well as functional for their users, staying on-trend is imperative. Great web design also plays a major factor in engaging viewers enough to read more about the company’s product or service and enticing them to take further action, whether that means getting in touch or downloading a piece of useful information.

2016 web design trends stem from various things, but the main idea being that many users are visiting a website on their mobile device prior to viewing the site on their desktop or laptop. In response to this, the design world has taken a mobile-first approach and many of the trends for this year are a direct response to the aforementioned idea.

Trend 1. Flat Design paired with Minimalism

Flat design has been a major trend for the past couple of years, but pairing it with minimalistic design is the update for 2016. Since users are viewing sites more and more on the go, paring down elements and simplifying content to the most important pieces is what will make a website most usable and most successful in generating interest and leads.

Examples of websites with great flat design and a minimalistic approach include:

https://www.affirm.com/buy-with-affirm/
http://www.sparked.nl/
https://www.dropbox.com/guide/business

Trend 2. Microinteractions / Animations

Interactivity on the web has long been a driver of user retention but until recently has it been done well. Thanks to technologies like HTML5 Canvas and CSS3 transitions and animations, businesses can showcase their unique offering through small interactions triggered by scrolls and clicks that not only engage the user but make the story of their offering much more visually appealing.

Examples of websites with some good use of microinteractions:

Zer0 to 5ive sites:
http://www.exagen.com/

From around the web:

http://vasonanetworks.com/#/home
https://www.trippeo.com/
http://cloudhorizon.com/en/index.html
https://www.affirm.com/buy-with-affirm/

Trend 3. HD Visual Assets (Photography and Video)

Thanks to increased bandwidth and more browser support for HTML5 video, available to just about anyone with an internet or wi-fi connection, the use of large, full-screen, HD photos and video has become a major design trend for 2016. Pairing with the above two trends, HD photography makes for a fantastic user experience, which translates well to phones and tablets. Likewise, use of video for not only main banners but supporting content has become extremely common and doesn’t just support the mobile-first movement, but is also great for making search engines happy. Ties with social media websites along with proprietary footage make video a trend that is sure to stick around for a while.

Examples of websites with use of video and HD photography

Zer0 to 5ive Sites:

http://nmb.bm/
http://rocketfuel.com

From around the web:

http://magnainvests.com/
http://chattanoogarenaissancefund.com/
http://www.bienvillecapital.com/

Other trends from 2015 that will continue to grow in 2016 include the use of bold, statement typography and use of illustration and iconography, which go along with the flat design and minimalistic trend.

These web design trends are not self-contained, sealed compartments. Dramatic typography works great on top of HD photos and videos. Immersive storytelling goes beautifully well together with custom typographic elements and colorful illustrations.

As the latest web standards keep gaining browser support, variety and uniqueness in design will be more noticeable on the web and only creativity and imagination is the limit to what you can do in the browser.